Having a pretty bad issue with post- travel depression? (mansion, France, best)
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Sliced American white bread is taking over the world. Best bread I know of is in Russia
You meant this?
Spoiler
All over the world? Seriously?
I am currently on my 3-month trip in Europe and didn't see that bread even in fast food places. They have hundreds of delicious sorts of breads. Why anyone would want to buy that?
I have bought the cheapest tomato and the most expensive organic local heirloom tomato, and they still PALE in comparison to the tomatoes in Europe. I am the kind of person who will happily pay 10, 15 dollars for ONE TOMATO if it actually tasted like what the tomatoes taste like in Europe.
I have stopped buying expensive organic heirloom local heritage (pick your label) produce b/c it really doesn't taste that much better than the cheap crap at Walmart (are you listening, Jeff Bezos/Whole Foods???). Let's face it: The USA does not produce food to emphasize flavor or taste; it produces food to emphasize shelf life. So now we have crop after crop of tasteless food.
And specifically in France, milk tastes like MILK (actually their milk tastes like our cream, but with an even stronger dairy flavor). Potatoes have a very intense potato flavor. Strawberries are amazing. Butter is unparalleled. Same goes for basically everything else I like to eat. Looking forward to retirement in the land of great tasting food!
The small markets I’m talking about are local independent stores, not Whole Foods kinds of places. The produce tastes just-picked because it was. The bread is baked there or by another local company. And it isn’t always expensive. I must say that I do buy the so-called Euro style butter (has higher fat %) rather than regular butter; it tastes better.
Other people buy at farmer’s markets, generally held once a week in the growing season.
To get back on topic: No, I do not get depressed when I am on home turf. There have been times in my life when I wanted vaca to keep going longer, but that isn’t the same as becoming depressed upon returning.
Several months ago I actually made a list of all things that I thought Europe made better than the US does. Both food and nonfood. It was a long list. Yet I love living in the US, because I love the vast areas of wild country we have here.
A week long trip gives you a distorted view of life somewhere, once the newness of living overseas wears off you'll find you're just as bored unless you attack the underlying problem of your dissatisfaction with life.
This happens to me every time I come back from France and have to re-adapt to the horrible food in the USA: tomatoes that don't taste like anything, potatoes that don't taste like anything, strawberries that taste like sour nothingness, and bread that shouldn't even be called bread! The food in the USA is the worst in the world.
I was in Corsica in June and had the best tasting Pears I've ever had in my life.
Second day home I was in Wal-Mart and bought a couple of Pears --- Garbage. Bland...nothing remotely like I tasted in Corsica.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beachlife9553
A part of me really wants to live abroad actually, maybe even just temporarily. My line of work though is unfortunately very specific and "blue collar", so it's unlikely I'll be able to get a visa for it. If you're not an EU citizen, it seems very difficult.
Amazing enough... my 'Blue Collar' skills enabled international work for 25 - 30 yrs PAID to travel. (as a family)
I have several friends doing the same. Pilots, well drillers, Electronic workers, welding (instructors), cabinet makers, stone masons, machinists, truckdrivers... Maybe not the destination of your choice, but hey, try somewhere else! You might like it too! My tenant went to Iraq as a 'blue collar worker' paid well with lots of PAID R&R to many places in Europe (Military retreat centers... very nice)
BTW: You won't need to worry about being accepted into EU much longer if you are headed to the UK! (We were there for the vote... impressive engagement and passion (in N Ireland at that time)).
BTW... stop being bored and do something about it (bad habit that blindly ROBS you of friends, and opportunities). Put in the 'good soldier' effort and that will be recognized, appreciated and you will be 'set-free' (in many ways!).
Try a few months with an NGO (many opportunities).
Are you a teacher? get hired with international DoD schools.
Neighbor gal (early widow) is in Jordan and Saudi Arabia at the moment (and for last 2+ yrs off and on)
Short trips are a tad 'honeymoon-ish'. thus the let down. Kinda like that last bite of great Pizza... oops, GONE... party (enjoyment) is over. Treasure your moments, you are fortunate to have them.
Last edited by StealthRabbit; 10-30-2018 at 12:01 AM..
I just returned a few weeks ago from a trip to Rome - San Marino - Venice - Nice - Monaco - Paris & London. I'm happy to be home, but I do miss the places we went. The other day I Google Earthed parts of the trip and "walked" along some of the places we went on Street View. I was happy to see it again.
This happens to me every time I come back from France and have to re-adapt to the horrible food in the USA: tomatoes that don't taste like anything, potatoes that don't taste like anything, strawberries that taste like sour nothingness, and bread that shouldn't even be called bread! The food in the USA is the worst in the world.
Three weeks in Iran in 2014 spoiled me forever for watermelon and pistachios. The ones we get in the US (and I lived in CA for 25 years where pistachios are grown) are absolutely abysmal in comparison. I still buy pistachios, even though they're second rate here. No watermelons, though. I can't stand the disappointment. I don't know why they're so good in Iran, but they're a pretty staple fruit in fancy hotel breakfast buffets and you see farmers selling mounds of them along the roadsides everywhere you go.
I'm sure most countries have some food or other that beat the equivalent in the US, but most of the countries I've worked in were developing countries in Africa, Central and South America with pretty basic food, so other than a couple trips to Europe and Australia on vacations, I don't have good examples personally. I just felt the Persian cuisine was the best I'd ever had. Everything was so fresh and flavorful.
Three weeks in Iran in 2014 spoiled me forever for watermelon and pistachios. The ones we get in the US (and I lived in CA for 25 years where pistachios are grown) are absolutely abysmal in comparison. I still buy pistachios, even though they're second rate here. No watermelons, though. I can't stand the disappointment. I don't know why they're so good in Iran, but they're a pretty staple fruit in fancy hotel breakfast buffets and you see farmers selling mounds of them along the roadsides everywhere you go.
I'm sure most countries have some food or other that beat the equivalent in the US, but most of the countries I've worked in were developing countries in Africa, Central and South America with pretty basic food, so other than a couple trips to Europe and Australia on vacations, I don't have good examples personally. I just felt the Persian cuisine was the best I'd ever had. Everything was so fresh and flavorful.
I sailed in overnight dhow from Kuwait to Iran and the entire cargo was watermelons, so now you know where they come from. We could eat all we wanted, just split them open, scoop out the sweet center, throw the rest over the side, and smash open another one.
I had a neighbor in Chile with a fig tree. Catch the tree-ripe windfalls before they rot, which is an hour or two. Heavenly.
In Malawi, we bought too many avocados for the smallest coin in circulation, ate all we could, and threw the rest to the monkeys.
Hello. I just returned to the US from Europe (London and Paris) and feeling very depressed. I was only there a week, and miss it terribly. I feel like I don't belong in the US, want to move. I'm probably not the only one who's going through this. I feel bored over here.
Such is life. This is why we continue to travel.
Start planning your next trip. Tends to help.
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(We were there for the vote... impressive engagement and passion (in N Ireland at that time)).
I don't know why they're so good in Iran, but they're a pretty staple fruit in fancy hotel breakfast buffets and you see farmers selling mounds of them along the roadsides everywhere you go.
